PROTECT YOUR TIRES THIS WINTER
Michael Aguon, National Product Manager, Alliance Tire Americas http://www.atgtire.com
Winter might be a slow season for farmers who do the bulk of their heavy lifting during the planting and harvesting seasons. But during the winter months the elements will be hard at work, and their effects can be disastrous to the health and longevity of your tires. Fortunately, a few good moves as the cold weather settles in can help you keep your tires in top shape for many seasons to come.
Put ‘em up for the winter
The Farmers’ Almanac is forecasting a winter that will experience below average temperatures for about two-thirds of the nation. When cold weather rolls in, the most important step you can take to protect your tires is to store them indoors (if you’re not using them). Prolonged exposure to sunlight, water, arid winter air and freeze-thaw conditions can degrade your tires’ rubber compounds.
Roll unused tires into a shed, or at least cover them up. Make sure wherever you store the tires, they’re upright, slightly underinflated if they’re on rims, and away from patches of oil or grease. Be careful not to store tires next to electric motors. Brushes on electric motors create ozone, which reacts with rubber compounds. As ozone molecules start snapping those long chains, tires start to crack.
Check your pressure
While checking the air pressure on your working tires is an important year-round task, it’s doubly important in the winter when weather changes can cause major swings in pressure. As a general rule, for every 10-degree (F) drop in air temperature, the pressure in your tires will decrease by about three psi. This works the other way, too – if temperatures warm up 10 degrees, your tire pressure will increase by about three psi.
Make sure you check your pressure and adjust accordingly before you roll out the tractor, loader, skid steer or pickup for chores this winter. And remember, you can’t just eyeball farm tires to check inflation — strong sidewalls can mask serious under-inflation. Use a gauge.
Re-weigh your tractor
Tractors are so versatile – in just a few minutes, you can install a shovel blade or a bucket to make easy work of moving snow. But remember that buckets and blades put a lot of strain on your tractor’s front axle and on the tires that hold it all up.
Make sure you re-weigh your tractor when you put on a blade or bucket. Take off ballast weights to reduce your fuel consumption (why pay to carry steel plates around for no reason?) and make sure your front and rear tires are inflated according to manufacturer’s instructions for the load, speed and footprint you need.
As a general rule, if you’re putting on a bucket, increase the pressure of your front tires by the lower of: i) 10 psi , or ii) the maximum rated pressure for that tire to compensate for the weight of a loaded bucket and to prepare for the increased dynamic forces of loader work. Dynamic load is how engineers describe what happens when you move the center of gravity of a big load up and down. Under those conditions, tires take a beating.
When it’s time to start pushing snow, hauling grain or loading the feed bunk on a cold winter’s morning, remember to start with the basics: check your pressure to make sure your tires are inflated properly to handle that day’s weather.
For more information visit the Alliance Tire website: http://www.atgtire.com
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